Parents of a young man who died of substance abuse urge others to talk about addiction before they, too, face tragedy

Thank you to Amy Waldron for her letter ("Bringing addiction out of the shadows," July 28) regarding the death of our son, Alex Hoehn, from substance abuse.

Amy's comments were both accurate and poignant, "Addiction is killing our young people at unprecedented rates. ... By bringing addiction out of the shadows and showing the faces of the people we are losing to this disease, we can continue to move forward toward breaking the stigma of addiction." Her response touched our hearts and we felt compelled to further share our story and the brutal effects of this horrific drug epidemic.

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It is unacceptable that a letter writer who identified himself as a long-time addictions counselor would display such an inadequate and limited knowledge of medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders ("Addiction can't be medicated away," July 25).

I am now in long-term recovery after having suffered with a substance use disorder for most of my life. I have tried many types of treatment, but what worked for me was a long-term, medication-assisted treatment plan.

Through that, I realized that regardless of the treatment, if one is seriously seeking recovery and positive change all approaches can work.

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The Department of Justice's Report on the Baltimore Police Doesn't Say How Freddie Gray Died, but It Does Explain Why

When Vanita Gupta, who heads the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, announced the findings of the 14-month frederal probe of the Baltimore Police Department, she made clear that it was not an investigation of Freddie Gray's death. That's true; it barely mentions him and certainly comes to no conclusions about the specific circumstances of his arrest and fatal injury. But in its searing critique of the department's practices, it explains everything that happened that morning.

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For years the government's "war on drugs" focused on stopping the production of illegal drugs in countries like Bolivia, Peru, Mexico and Afghanistan.

While that effort was pretty much a failure, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, the tobacco industry and the alcohol industry were producing record numbers of their products at home. As a result, more Americans now die from tobacco, alcohol and prescription drugs than all illegal drugs combined.

There is no doubt that drug companies and physicians share responsibility for the current opiate and heroin epidemic. The primary cause of the current drug epidemic is the overprescribing of prescription pain medications by physicians, who get very little training regarding the disease of addiction but are often the salespeople for new medications.

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Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis wants to relax a hiring policy for police officers in Maryland that disqualifies applicants for past marijuana use, saying it is "fundamentally inconsistent with where we are as a society" and hurts local hiring efforts.

Davis will lead a committee to review the current standard of the Maryland Police Training Commission, which sets hiring policy for law enforcement in the state. Applicants are disqualified from becoming officers if they have used marijuana more than 20 times in their lives or five times since turning 21.

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Maryland has recently enacted or proposed two work-arounds for the problem of Suboxone being smuggled into prisons. The first action, taking Suboxone off the Medicaid preferred drug list ("State action limits opioid addiction treatments," June 23), destabilized patients in recovery without reducing demand in prisons. Last week, Maryland correctional officials proposed a ban on prisoners receiving personal letters by mail. This proposal was later withdrawn, presumably as a response to criticism by the ACLU ("Maryland corrections officials withdraw proposal to limit inmate mail to postcards," July 21).

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Finding Qualified Men and Women to Serve As City Police Officers Is Tough Enough Without an Outdated Marijuana Policy

The challenge of police recruiting is nothing new. The modest pay, long hours and duties that can be both boring and life-threatening aren't for everyone. In 2000, for instance, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles reported a drastic drop in police applicants and blamed a number of factors, including low officer morale, for their recruitment woes.

But police departments like Baltimore's need more than the usual suspects to walk in their door. Since long before Freddie Gray was placed in the back of that police van, city officials have been pushing for a more diverse Police Department. How much more effective might law enforcement be if its officers truly understood the community they served - if, for instance, they grew up on the same streets they would be asked to patrol?

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We are writing to let The Sun know that we are not going to let our grandson's death be just another drug-related death. He was just a kid who got caught up the heroin-fentanyl epidemic and lost his life.

On June 15, our 18-year-old grandson took heroin laced with fentanyl, got sick and died on Mountain Road in Pasadena. His body laid in plain sight for two days. Cars and people passed by and no one called to report his body. It was his father who found him and called 911.

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Police Commissioner Says Bar on Past Marijuana Use Limits Recruiting Efforts

Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis wants to relax a hiring policy for police officers in Maryland that disqualifies applicants for past marijuana use, saying it is "fundamentally inconsistent with where we are as a society" and hurts local hiring efforts.

Davis will lead a committee to review the current standard of the Maryland Police Training Commission, which sets hiring policy for law enforcement in the state. Police applicants are disqualified from becoming officers if they have used marijuana more than 20 times in their lives or five times since turning 21 years old.

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Morhaim a Key Advocate for Medical Marijuana in State

A state lawmaker who has been a leading advocate for Maryland's medical marijuana law said Wednesday that he wished he had been more transparent about his business connection to the cannabis industry.

Del. Dan Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat, has drawn scrutiny for publicly telling the state's medical cannabis commission how to set up the industry at the same time he agreed to work as a clinical director for a private company seeking a highly coveted license.

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MD. Delegate Did Not Disclose His Connection to Dispensary Applicant

The state lawmaker who led the effort to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland is part of a company trying to sell and profit off the drug - a position he never disclosed as he pushed bills and regulations to help cannabis businesses.

Del. Dan K. Morhaim (D-Baltimore County) is the clinical director for Doctor's Orders, according to a portion of a dispensary licensing application obtained by The Washington Post through a public records request.

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Morhaim Tells Advocates to Be Aggressive in Pressing State's Health Care Providers

A leading architect of the state's medical marijuana program urged representatives of the fledgling industry Wednesday to pressure health care providers and hospital administrators to remove obstacles to making the drug available to patients.

Del. Dan K. Morhaim, the longestserving physician in the General Assembly, told about 200 people at the first statewide conference of the Maryland Cannabis Industry Association that they need to be aggressive advocates as their business approaches its first legal sales - probably next year.

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Columbia Group Wants to Test Medical Marijuana to Lessen Danger to Patients

A group of local doctors plans to open a medical marijuana testing facility in Columbia to ensure product quality as the state prepares to launch its burgeoning therapeutic cannabis industry.

Testing is required by state law for cannabis growers, which presented an opportunity for the group of four doctors, led by Dr. Andrew Rosenstein, chief of the division of gastroenterology at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center.

Rosenstein said the doctors were worried about potential threats to some of their sickest patients from contaminants in cannabis that could complicate conditions rather than alleviate pain and other symptoms.

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Padlocking stores and punishing small business owners who are fearful of drug dealer retaliation is not the solution to reducing crime ("Police close BP gas station," June 22). This is about drug prohibition, and here is another reason added to the long list of reasons for ending drug prohibition laws which are counter productive to public safety.

In the same manner that Al Capone and his gun toting cronies intimidated businesses and communities as they managed their illegal alcohol businesses, today's drug dealers literally commandeer gas stations and convenience stores while peddling drugs within poor city communities.

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The people lining up to profit from Maryland's legal medical-marijuana market include former sheriffs and state lawmakers, wealthy business executives and well-connected political donors, according to previously undisclosed public records obtained by The Washington Post.

Nearly 150 businesses are competing for up to 15 cultivation licenses that will be awarded starting this summer, the first footholds in an emerging industry that is already worth billions nationally.

Very few applicants have publicly discussed their plans. But through a public-records request and database searches, The Post identified more than 950 people working for or investing in prospective growing operations in Maryland. Among them: former Drug Enforcement Administration agents; the leader of a Maryland statewide police union; former heads of the Department of Natural Resources police; a former U.S. Capitol Police chief; and Eugene Monroe, the recently released tackle for the Baltimore Ravens who is the foremost advocate of medical marijuana in the National Football League.

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The Supreme Court just gave police sweeping new powers to rummage through people's pockets

The Supreme Court threw out more than a half century of precedent this week when it ruled that evidence gathered after an illegal stop can be used in criminal prosecutions if the person searched has an outstanding warrant. In a 5-3 ruling, the justices substantially weakened the longstanding exclusionary rule that generally makes such evidence inadmissible in court. The court's action threatens Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches and represents a dangerous departure from settled law that prevented police from randomly stopping and questioning people on the streets.

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EASTON - U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, Rmd.-1st, is part of a group of bipartisan congressmen who want to loosen the federal barriers to medical marijuana research.

Harris, a physician who has also conducted National Institute of Health-sponsored research, and several other federal lawmakers plan to introduce bills in both houses of Congress.

According to Harris' office, the House version of the bill would address two major barriers faced by those who want to conduct legitimate medical marijuana research. It allows for the private manufacturing and distribution of marijuana solely for research purposes, in order for the researchers to get the pot they need for their studies. It also aims to reduce approval wait times for studies.

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GOP Rep. Andy Harris Wants More Study of the Medicinal Use of Cannabis

WASHINGTON - Two years after Rep. Andy Harris put himself in the center of a controversy over legalizing marijuana in the nation's capital, the conservative Republican is emerging as a leading voice advocating for more research into the drug's medicinal value.

Harris, a Johns Hopkins-trained anesthesiologist who hangs a white lab coat in his waiting room on Capitol Hill, has been working for roughly a year to build a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers who want to ease restrictions on marijuana for the purpose of studying its effect on debilitating diseases.

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Female Entrepreneurs Aim to Lead in Medical Cannabis

The burgeoning sisterhood of Maryland's marijuana entrepreneurs gathered in the back room of a Columbia chain restaurant recently, swapping business ideas over chicken wings and cheese cubes.

Maryland's long-promised medical marijuana industry doesn't exist yet, and that's precisely why more than 60 women, mostly dressed like a PTA crowd, banded together there - to rise to the top before anyone gets in their way.

"How vital are women to the success of the cannabis business in Maryland? If you're asking, I probably don't want to talk to you," said Megan Rogers, a co-founder of the Baltimore chapter of Women Grow and an applicant to open a dispensary. "We're here to ensure that the cannabis industry has no glass ceiling."

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Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe was released Wednesday, several months after he had publicly called on the N.F.L. to let players use medical marijuana to treat injuries.

Though retired N.F.L. players have advocated for the use of medical marijuana, Monroe is one of the few active players who have taken that stance. Medical marijuana, he said, is safer and healthier than prescription painkillers, which can be addictive.

Monroe, who is now a free agent, said he would continue to call on the league to loosen its stance, regardless of whether he continues to play in the N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell has said only that the league's advisers continue to evaluate the issue.

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